Iggy Pop Considered for "American Idol" Judge Slot

Also readying new music, Stooges reissues

As you're watching Steven Tyler babble incoherence on "American Idol" this year, try a thought experiment: Close your eyes and imagine Iggy Pop sitting in his chair and drinking from his oversized Coca-Cola cup instead. It could've happened. As TwentyFourBit points out, Iggy recently gave an interview to Billboard, in which he revealed that "American Idol" contacted him about becoming a judge on the show: "It didn't go very far. There were two phone calls... I wasn't sure I was interested or available. They called me... I was curious and we spoke a couple times, and that was as far as that went. I don't think I could've done the right job for them on that particular show." Presumably, Iggy would've had to wear a shirt while judging. Maybe that was the deal-breaker.

Iggy did perform on "American Idol" a couple of weeks ago, singing "Real Wild Child" and doing the whole running-around-shirtless thing. It was weird. The video is below.

Pop also told Billboard that he's working on new Stooges music with guitarist James Williamson, saying that they have "about eight things right now that are... sort of complete songs. Maybe some of them need to be more complete or some of them need to be forgotten. And then some of them... just flow right along." He adds that the new songs are "halfway between Raw Power and Kill City." The new Stooges music, however, will have to wait for Iggy's forthcoming solo album, a follow-up to his jazz-inspired 2009 album Préliminaires. On the new one, he'll once again sing in both French and English, covering other people's songs, "mostly ballads." Covers on the LP include the Beatles' "Michelle", Fred Neil's "Everybody'sTalkin'", and tracks from Serge Gainsbourg and Henri Salvador. He hopes to release the album in late 2011 or early 2012.

Meanwhile, Shout! Factory will release a four-CD box set of Iggy Pop live bootlegs, Roadkill Rising: The Bootleg Collection 1977-2009, May 19. The ghastly cover art is above. The set dedicates one CD to each decade; check out the tracklistat the Shout! Factory site. The set includes Stooges and solo songs, as well as covers, and all the tracks have been remastered. If you order the set directly from Shout! Factory, you'll also get the CD Live in San Francisco: November 27, 1979, a previously unreleased live recording that's limited to 400 copies.

Also, MVD Entertainment has just released the live album Raw Power Live: In the Hand of the Fans, a recording of the Stooges performing their classic LP Raw Power in full at last year's Jim Jarmusch-curated All Tomorrow's Parties festival in New York state. At this site, an email address will get you a free download of the album's version of "Search and Destroy".

Jarmusch is currently working on a Stooges documentary. Last year, Jarmuschtold us a little bit about the doc: "It's going to take a few years. There's no rush on it, but it's something that Iggy asked me to do."